Hills commemorated by state Legislature

The
South Dakota Legislature recently recognized Dr. Tom Hills,
professor of political science at Black Hills State University, for
25 years as campus coordinator for the South Dakota Legislative
Internship Program.

Both
Legislative houses read a commemorative proclamation recognizing the
BH political science professor for his work with the internship
program. Hills was at the Capitol to hear the commemoration read and
to receive the applause from both Legislative bodies.

He became
campus coordinator of the internship program in 1977 and has
recruited and served as a mentor to more than 100 BHSU students. He
has also helped place interns with the State Federation of Labor and
the governor’s office.

Hills has been a
member of the university faculty since 1969. He served as chairman
of the junior college division, chairman of social science division
and dean of the college of business and public affairs in addition
to teaching. He is a 1962 graduate of BHSU and earned a master’s
degree (1968) and doctorate (1969) from the University of Oregon.

A $5,500
student leadership grant from the Chiesman Foundation was awarded to
Black Hills State University as a result of the efforts of school
representatives and community members.

Civic
leadership training will offered to 30 students from northern hills
high schools beginning this spring. Students and a faculty member
from each school district will constitute a team. The team will
include one freshman, two sophomores, and two juniors selected from
teacher and administrator recommendations. Jeanmarie Heriba,
director of the South Dakota Issues Forum, will provide the
training.

The program is
designed encourage and recognize youth leadership and educate
students in the processes of democracy. Students will

be encouraged to
engage issues, think critically, make choices, set goals, and learn
facilitation skills through peer-to-peer interaction.

Student
participants will be encouraged to attend the South Dakota Youth
Congress in July, organize an issues forum in the fall and spring,
and conduct mini forums in various schools and communities.

BHSU
hosts summer math and science program for outstanding
high school juniors- Top

Black Hills
State’s Center for the Advancement of Mathematics and Science
Education (CAMSE) is sponsoring a four-day summer enrichment program
for high school juniors July 7–11.

The enrichment
program titled “Rising Scholars in Math and Science” is designed
for South Dakota students between their junior and senior year in
high school. This is the second annual summer enrichment program for
area high school juniors.

Each participant
will receive a $100 stipend plus a modest travel allowance based on
distance from their hometown to Spearfish.

Students who
“are intellectually curious and have a strong interest in math and
science are encouraged to apply,” said Dr. Ben Sayler, CAMSE
director. “Public, private, and home-schooled students are all
welcome to apply. Approximately 20 exceptional students will be
selected.”

Participants will
interact closely with BHSU faculty, exceptional high school teachers
and a select cohort of fellow participants.

“The goal is to
enrich the academic preparation of the most promising high school
mathematicians and scientists,” said Sayler. “Students will
expand their minds and make new friends with peers who have similar
motivation, talents, and interests.”

Student
participants will spend four days together on the BHSU campus, dine
with program faculty and staff, and immerse themselves in fun
mind-expanding math and science challenges.

Applications for the enrichment program are due April
1. Students are required to submit an essay, a list of
extra-curricular activities, a transcript and a recommendation. For
complete application information contact Dorothy Keller at <dorothykeller@bhsu.edu>,
or phone (605) 642-6873 or check the web site at
<http://camse.spearfish.k12.sd.us/sdrs>. Applications and
information should also be available by contacting area high-school
guidance counselors.

Gary E. Meek, dean of the College of Business
& Technology, and Dr. Ceyhun Ozgur of Valparaiso University
co-authored a paper titled “A Review and Extension of Control
Limit Methods for Non-Normal Distributions.” Their paper has been
accepted for publication by the International
Journal of Operations and Quantitative Managementin Volume 7, No.2, pp. 1-15.

For small sample sizes the use of standard
control limits for a process average assumes that the distribution
of the process output is no more than moderately non-normal.When this assumption is true the Central Limit Theorem (CLT)
states that the distribution of the averages, even for small
samples, can be closely approximated with a

normal distribution.If the original distribution is quite skewed in either
direction, the normal
distribution indicated by the CLT may not be appropriate.In that case standard control limits for averages become
inappropriate and often can lead to false out-of-control signals
and, in turn, to unnecessary costs due to downtime and time spent
searching for non-existent causes.Burrows (1962) indicates that this problem may exist even for
slightly skewed distributions.Examples of such characteristics are purity of chemical
compounds and flatness, parallelism or perpendicularity of parts.This paper provides a thorough review of literature dealing
with control limits when the underlying process distribution is
non-normal, and proposes using the Camp-Meidell inequality to
develop control limits for the process mean in such situations if it
is reasonable to believe that the distribution is unimodal.

The Spirit of Excellence at Work Award is
presented to Priscilla Romkema, assistant professor of business and
director of the Center for Business and Entrepreneurship, for all her efforts to be a visible
presence in the business community, to be a highly professional liaison
between BHSU and the community, her successful grantsmanship, andher unflagging service and dedication to students.

This
award is chosen by a group which meets regularly to discuss ways to
improve the campus working environment. This group feels that when
they “catch” someone doing their job well, that performance
should be recognized and encourages everyone to keep up the good
work so they can “catch” you at it.

Changes
announced for benefit enrollment for the next fiscal year - Top

Employees may
re-enroll for the South Dakota employees benefit plan April 29
through May 6.The
benefit plans includes health insurance, dental, vision, major
injury, hospital indemnity, short-term disability, life insurance,
child- care reimbursement, medical reimbursement, etc.Changes made during this enrollment period will become
effective July 1, 2002.

Employees should take
note of the following changes of the enrollment process.

1.Enrollment
packets will not be mailed

Enrollment packets will not be automatically
mailed to employees this year as all information is available
online.Employees who
would like toreceive a
printed FY 2003 annual enrollment packet need to make the request at
1-800-343-1319 by April 10.Callers
will need to use the following access code - SDBOP (73267) and
social security number when they call. All re-enrollments will be
conducted on-line or via telephone.

2.Enrollment
meetings

There will be 11 benefit enrollment meetings
via the DDN Network.BHSU employees may view the sessions at the BHSU Library,
room L 020.Rapid City
based employees may view the sessions at the South Dakota School of
Mines and Technology in the new Classroom Building - Room 109.

The meetings are scheduled for
only one-half hour this year.This
is your chance to have your benefit questions answered by the plan
staff.

Date

Time
(Mountain Time)

Monday, April
15

10 a.m. and
10:30 a.m.

Wednesday,
April 17

10 a.m. and
10:30 a.m.

Thursday, April
18

10 a.m. and
10:30 a.m.

Wednesday,
April 24

10 a.m. and
10:30 a.m.

Thursday, April
25

1 p.m.

Friday, April
26

10 am and 10:30
am

3.Plan changes for FY 2003 include:

1.Premium
increases

Dependent
Health up 5 percent

COBRA and
Retiree Dependent Health up 5 percent

COBRA and
Retiree Health up 10 percent

Dental and
Vision Care up 5 percent

2.Wellness
Incentive - An increased incentive of $50 into a medical spending
account when an employee attends a health screening and completes a
health risk assessment. This is your reward for monitoring your
health.For FY 2002,
the incentive was $25.

The
committee reviewed the reports for middle school, special education,
early education/special education, special education. The committee
voted to reject all reports and return them for revision and
resubmission.The
committee recommended that the reports be consolidated into one
report with student-learning outcomes identified and interpreted.Drs. Schamber, Calhoon, and Pearce agree to work with the
College of Education to revise these reports.

The
committee reviewed the report on the MSBSM and voted to reject it
and return it for revision and resubmission.The committee felt that the report

needed
to identify goals.Altmyer
and Turner will work with the College of Business and Technology.

Dr.
Schamber reported that the general education had developed a plan of
assessment which had been distributed to the assessment committee.One aspect of this assessment was survey of students which
would be given at the time of the rising junior and the exit exams.

The
chair reported that next year the board of regents will revisit the
philosophy of general education and also begin to look at courses.Since the last revision, BH has added several math options,
French, German, and Lakota, and women in literature.

It is
unclear at this time what the board's goal is.

The
next meeting will be March 26 and areas to be discussed include
accounting, music, art, psychology, and any new reports coming to
the chair.

The Instructional Improvement Committee (IIC)
encourages, through monetary grants, the application of existing
knowledge to specific teaching situations to improve the quality of
instruction at BHSU.

Any
full-time faculty member, full-time adjunct faculty, or other full-time staff member engaged in student instruction may apply for grant
funds administered by the committee.
Grant funding will normally be available up to a maximum of
$1,000 per project. Priority will be given to projects that will
have a broad-based, visible, continuing impact of instruction across
faculty members and/or disciplines. Funds are available for
development of materials and methods to improve teaching and
learning, equipment to enhance teaching and learning, travel to
conferences or workshops which enhance teaching and learning, and
bringing consulting lecturers and teaching specialists to campus to
offer presentations

to and/or with
faculty and teaching-support staff at BHSU.

Faculty
members who apply for grants to support travel to a conference or
workshop are limited to receiving no more than one grant every three
years.In the other
categories, priority will be given to those who have not received an
IIC grant in the last academic year.

Proposals for grant funding
will be reviewed by the IIC on a monthly basis. The deadline for
submission will be the last Friday of each month; a decision will be
made as soon as practicable on each proposal.Eleven copies of the proposals should be submitted to the
grants and special projects office in Woodburn 218, or to the chair
of the committee, Sharon Strand. Proposals will consist of the
proposal and budget outlines following the specified format
available at the grants and special projects web
page.

The faculty-research committee has funds available for the current
fiscal year. Write a short (about three-page) proposal. Proposal
forms are available at the grants office or can be printed out from
their webpage.

It is anticipated that successful applicants will request support
for faculty release time, research equipment, travel to research
sites or research support for the production of creative work.
Preference is given to new applicants, particularly in the areas of
education,
business, social sciences

and humanities. The next application deadline is Friday, March 22 at 2 p.m. Twelve copies of the
application should be submitted to the Grants & Special Projects Office,
Woodburn 218, or to Dr. Farrokhi, Chair, Woodburn 314.

The applicants are encouraged to contact the committee members
for advice prior to completing their proposals. The members are John
Alsup, Steve Anderson, Lyle Cook, Tom Cox, Abdollah Farrokhi, chair;
Jim Hess, Kathleen Parrow, Shane Sarver, and Rob Schurrer.

Below are the program materials received Feb 28-March 6 in the grants office, Woodburn 218. For copies of the
information, contact our office at 642-6627 or e-mail requests to grants@bhsu.edu.Fellowship information will also be posted on the Student
Union bulletin board near the information desk.

National Endowment for the Arts.Program: creativity.Due March 25.

National Endowment for the Humanities.Humanities focus grants.Due April
15.

Dactyl Foundation for the Arts and Humanities.Grants to writers.No deadline.